Heath Wins Donner Prize for Best Public Policy Book
Joseph Heath, professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, has won the 2020 Donner Prize for Best Public Policy Book.
Professor Heath won the prize, which includes CA$50,000 (approximately $41,000), for his book, The Machinery of Government: Public Administration and the Liberal State (Oxford University Press, 2020).
The Donner Prize “encourages and celebrates excellence in public policy writing by Canadians and recognizes the role good public policy plays in the well-being of Canadians and this country’s success.”
You can watch a video of Professor Heath discussing his book here (at 31:18).
Even though I’m a big fan of Heath’s work I haven’t had the chance to read this book yet, but still want to suggest that it’s something people interested in political philosophy _should_ read, because administrative law/the administrative state is really super important. For very large parts of government, you literally can’t understand it unless you know something about how the administrative state works, and this is apparent (in a not so good way) in lots of political and applied philosophy.
Bravo! As Professor Heath points out in his interview, the ethics of public administration is a severely understudied area. I am glad to see that he has put together such a worthy contribution.